Book Review - A Diary of Healing My Intense and Meaningful Life With Cancer by Mary Ann Wasil

On Monday I went to Mary Ann’s book launch on Monday at the
request of my friend Kerry Robinson.Kerry described Mary Ann as an amazing woman who she really wanted me to
meet.Now I thought I would go, meet Mary
Ann, maybe buy a book in support and it would be interesting and that would be
it.Well I couldn’t have been more
wrong.Mary Ann was witty, charming, and
frankly fascinating.She read several
excerpts from her book that gave us a feel for her journey with cancer and a
bit of insight into her style.Frankly it
made it so I would want to read her book, which of course is the point of a
book launch.Well done Mary Ann.

Let me issue a brief warning, if you do decide to read this
book be sure that you don’t have anything planned for a couple of hours because
you will not be able to put it down.I
started reading this last night and knew I was in trouble when I page 8 I
encountered the following conversation between Mary Ann and the surgeon who was
scheduled to do her biopsy.The surgeon
was suggesting a needle biopsy by Mary Ann wanted a surgical biopsy.

“He told me that I
would have a scar on my breast.

Okay

I told him I was more
concerned about the stray cell than the scarred breast.

Then he told me that
it doesn’t work that way, and besides, he was sure it wasn’t going to be
malignant.

Really?

I asked him if he
would be willing to bet his testicles on that.”

My first reaction to that was to burst out laughing.My second was to think: “OMG if only all
women could be so confident in what they want when talking to physicians.”That includes me.I knew from that point forward I was not
going to be able to put this down.

Throughout her story there are snippets similar to this
one.That’s not to say that her battle
isn’t or wasn’t heart wrenching but she faced/faces it with a grace that I
would hope we could all learn from.There were several ah-ha moments in her story that I hope I will keep
with me should I ever face a battle of cancer as either the patient or in a
role of support.

The book is witty, heartfelt and well written.I’m actually sorry we did not buy extra
copies to give to some of our friends, especially those I know who have already
gone through breast cancer because I can’t imagine that they won’t be able to
relate to this story.I would highly
recommend this book to anyone but especially to women, regardless of if they
have had breast cancer or not.